New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-10-09
THE TWO TOLSTOIS.
GREAT WRITER: LITTLE REFoRMER.


IN PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS BY Count LEO ToIsroI.
Translated from the Russian by Mrs. ALINE DELANo.
lGmo DID 90 Boston, ID. LOthr0p Co.
WHAT TO DOT Thoughts Evoked ny the Census OF
from the Russian by ISABEL +. HAPGOOD. limo, pp.
273 Thomas y. Crowell * Co.
These three volumes illustrate very fairly the ex-
:ellences and the defects of Tolstos literary work.
and especially the harm done to his genius by the
fantasies which have latterly taken possession OF
him The volume entitled Z" The Invaders Is
collection OF sketches of army life in the Caucasus.
1t Is In the authors best style he life deScrooa
is commonplace There is not mich excitement in
it, skrmish with the Tartars is the most stirring
Incident and even in that there is little to quicken
the pulse. But it is faithful. minute and oompre-
hensive description. The term realism has become
so hnckDcyed and abused that it can hardly be said
to retain n distinct meaning. To say That l0lstoi
10 realist IN the sense, OF any thing ike the
same sense, that Zola Is realist. or that MT
Howells is reaist. would certainly be to confuse
and mslesd. Tolstoi does not. in fact at all con-
fine himself to describing what he sees 10 borrow
term from another art, he might be called an I'M
pressionist and yet that term too has oecn 80
travestied that its employment Is no longer saie
The Russian certainly describes what he sees but
to everything he appends his own gloss. lie sees n
soldier sitting by the camp fire, silent and medi
tstive He docs not simply tell how that soldier
appeared how he sat. how he was clothed, the ex-
preston of his face he goes on after all that has
been set down and ideaizcs the contents OF the
mans mind. He says what the soldier is thinking
OF course he imagines this In the same way he
ipfuses h:s own spirit into all the figures in his
sketches and over the nanirnate objects he throws
tie light or shadow of his own mental conditions.
This is not realism of the Zola type. The French
man appears to seek Cat models from among the
a Thn. h0
ing selected his bodies. he fits them with intelll-
gcnces ad aptel to their external aspects In
cert ain sense Zola proceeds scientifically than
Toisto That is to say, IL clinical demonstration Is
a legitimate end Of fiction. his method is more
strictly consistent than that of the Russian. But
In fact tina point cannot be conceded. clinical
demonstration Is not a legitimate end or hetlon,
and Tolstofs imagination brought IN aid OF ms
observation produces more artistic, truer ana
higher results than Zolas logical deductions from
vicious premises.
Bnt Tostoi differs almost 70 much from Howens
as he does from lola He is not to be put above the
American novelist en- the score of superior purity
There the two stano level. But Tolstoi gives mach
freer play to his Imagination than lowels, and he
"a not averso from tie representation of genius
and beroisrn There Is indeed a tendency in him,
becouse of his strong analytic faculty, to put great
things under the microscope and the scalpe as well
MS small, and this tendency sometimes minimze'
the.efect of high and noble deeds.by exposing their
springs too openly. The saying that no man is
hero to his valet" contains the philosophy which
applies to this characteristic in him. There are
few people or things familiarity with which does
not diminish reverence and adm iration, AMI II IS
not the highest art or the stror gest judgment in
To,etoi that is so manifested in his work The
integrity of his purpose, however, cannot be
ba Of belief
heroic and the great Here he parts company with
Howells who holds that genius does not exist ana
that there Is but the commonplace in life' roman
ticsm being a fevcrish fantasy which accounts Tor
the creation and worship of heroes. Iolstol mas
his Limitations, but they are not IN this direction.
Tie is neither soeptc nor pessimist lie Is IN fact
much nearer being mystic, aud he possesses the
temperament of one, held IL check aud balanced
by the keenness of his OF servation.
We have said that Tolsoi was rot a pessimist
but it cannot be denied that he is strongly tinct-
ured with thatpeculiar melancholy which IS the
mark of bis nation in literature and perhaps not
only IN literature but in life We should search
yainIy in his writings for that expression oil JOY IN
exlstence that disposition to the bright side oil
eyerythino and to make tho best of any fortune
which is 80 conspicuous a characteristic OF DICK
ems for instance. He cert iinly believes that the
world can be made better but he does not take
pleasure in the condition 1t actually occupies, anu
he seems often TO be questioning the utility ol tue
struggles and troubles through which his own
creations PASS. In his novels and tales TINS Aus
piouancy to the narrative but 10 his later DOCKS
which are not fiction, the melancholy underlying
his philosophy is seen to have mace advances
which affect tho value of his argument and even
the sanity of his theories. In fiction he Is always
at his best if that best is not ideal excellence his
detect, are partly racial His strength IS In his
un,on of descriptive power with somewhat
sombre but pure and aspiring imagination. But
from snch frankly descriptive sketches as The
Invaders and such powerful novels as" var and
Peace" aud Anna Karenina he has passed 10 Tie
No-mansL and of such books as thatentitlod what
to Do 7" and here he founders as fsebly as samson
when the shears had passed over his mead. Inc
short stories gathered in the volume caheu III
Pursuit of Happiness" are OF mixed eh aracter
One or two convey bOmcly morals ana OF theso
How Much Land Man Needs" is striking and
powerful 1t is the account OF a greedy man
efforts to secure great tract Of land, the condition
be;ny that he was to own as much territory as he
conld walk or run round between sunrise and sun
cot All through the day his rapacity led hiin 70
extend the lines on which he was walking, and
finally he was 80 strained in attempting 10 reach
the goal Def 70 the sun sank that he fell and dieo
as his hand touched It,
From this to What to Do ~ is long reach In
the latter book TOlstoi discusses social problem 4
and develops the strangely primitive ideas wh'ch
his crude studies of the Bible have led him to- In
these studies the weakest side Of his intellect has
been called into play. 1t is in fact a faculty so
aborted from disuse that it Is capable OF little
The gifts which won him fame are useless here.
His education on the economic side has clearly
been perfunctory and defective His Judgment Is
completely adrift He seems to think 1t possible to
move the world backward to the social conditions
of the stone age and at the same time to preserve
and even heighten the virtues and graces whose
fruition belongs to only tho rarest examples OF ap
pled Christianity. No doubt much OF the oddly
of his positions may be as'ribed tc his own position
I'D En- national conditions. AS wealthy Russian